All about the turkey: Stories, science, and facts about Thanksgiving’s iconic bird

On Thursday, as families and friends come together around a feast, millions of these households will have a turkey as their centerpiece. 

In many ways, Thanksgiving has become synonymous with turkeys. And so, in honor of the gobbling bird, here’s a look at the history, biology, and survival of turkeys in Colorado and across the United States. 

A turkey’s place on Thanksgiving 

Much like turkey’s place in holiday meals, Thanksgiving itself has several origins throughout American history. 

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The story of the “first” Thanksgiving is often linked to a 1621 fall harvest festival between the Wampanoag people and English colonizers. Historians say it’s unlikely that turkey was part of this harvest. It’s more likely that the main meat would have been geese, ducks, or deer. 

The turkey’s place at Thanksgiving, much like the story that this harvest was the first celebration of the holiday, came centuries later. 

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President Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. The holiday was created as a way to unify the country during the Civil War but had been irregularly celebrated previously in different states. 

New England Magazine Editor Sarah Josepha Hale is heavily credited for the proclamation as she spent decades lobbying the federal government to acknowledge the national holiday. 

From Hale and her persistence came not only Thanksgiving, but also the turkey’s place on the dinner table, many believe. Hale — who wrote about topics like literature, cooking, and fashion — described a New England Thanksgiving in her 1827 novel “Northwood,” placing a roasted turkey in a prominent position in the traditional meal. 

While this is one of the more common stories, others credit the turkey’s rise in popularity to its practicality. In the 1800s, turkeys were not only plentiful on the continent but were a large enough bird to feed the entire family. Others say that a depiction of turkey in Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” written in 1843, led to its rise in prominence on holiday tables. 

The national importance of turkey is often linked to a now disproven fable that Benjamin Franklin wanted it to be the national bird over the bald eagle. He was seemingly fond of the animal, however. In a letter to his daughter, Franklin did call the turkey a “much more respectable bird,” writing that although they were “a little vain and silly” they were a “bird of courage,” according to The Franklin Institute.

Regardless of the inception, turkeys are now sold in the millions each Thanksgiving, with both domestic and wild turkeys sitting central to the tradition. 

The National Wild Turkey Federation wrote in a blog that turkeys were likely one of the first animals to be domesticated and raised for food in the Americas, with the Mayans domesticating turkeys in Mexico nearly 2,000 years ago. Today, domestic and wild turkeys have several differences, most obviously that domestic turkeys have white feathers compared to the brown of their wild counterparts. Most of the differences — including that domestic turkeys are bigger, fatter, and can’t fly — have to do with the way they’ve been bred for consumption. 

Turkeys in Colorado 

Wild turkeys have lived many lives since the inception of the first Thanksgiving celebrations — going from near extinction in the 1900s to being revived to now abundant populations, a story that makes turkeys “one of the largest success stories in wildlife management,” according to Ed Gorman, a small game manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

“There were lots and lots of them during pre-settlement, and as settlement began and continued, turkey populations really took a beating because they were a food source,” Gorman said. 

During the Great Depression, it was estimated that there were only 30,000 turkeys in North America. Nearing extinction, nationwide efforts to restore the birds began in the mid- to late-1900s.

Colorado began its own aggressive reintroduction efforts in the 1980s, not only supplementing the Merriam’s turkey populations that were native to the state, but also introducing Rio Grande turkeys along the Eastern plains. 

One of the most unique things about turkeys compared to other avian species is how well they responded to these transplant efforts, Gorman said. 

“Turkeys are tremendously adaptable. They can make it work in just about any habitat for a short period of time,” he said. 

It’s an attribute that lends itself well to survival.

“Threats to turkeys are probably less than a species that’s a real specialist because turkeys adapt over to all kinds of habitats,” he said. 

This is exemplified by the way the birds adapt seasonally. 

“We’ll see range expansion quite commonly with wild turkeys, both species, and then we’ll get a big winter, and you’ll really see a range constriction back to the core habitats that really provide what they need in tough conditions,” he said. 

Today, Colorado is past the restoration phase with the birds now abundant in the state. Parks and Wildlife estimates there are 35,000 turkeys across Colorado’s plains and mountains. 

While they have slightly different coloration and behaviors, Colorado’s two species of wild turkeys are mostly distinguishable based on where they call home, Gorman said. 

Rio Grande turkeys are grassland birds that thrive in the prairies, drawn to cottonwood riparian areas. On the other hand, Merriam’s turkeys are mountainous birds, drawn to the assorted vegetation and forested habitats. Additionally, while Rio Grande turkeys are more “homebodies” and have a smaller home range, Merriam’s are more “nomadic by nature” and can move up to 40 miles between summer and winter habitats, Gorman said. 

The turkey success story is pinpointed by one interesting fact.

“Turkeys have relatively high mortality, year-round adult mortality…  probably 40% of adults in a given year succumb,” he said. “However, the population is built to withstand that and in some cases, the populations are built to flourish under that scenario. That’s just how these birds in particular are built. They can withstand a lot.

Part of how turkeys overcome this high mortality is by having lots of poults. 

“The annual production part of the biology of the birds is quite amazing,” Gorman said. “The entire thing works because enough hens survive the winter to produce a new set of poults the following spring. And from there on, the population is a margins game: Did a few more survive this year to produce more poults next year?” 

Despite all the positives about turkey survival and adaptability, they are not immune to things like severe winters and droughts. He said in recent years the agency has seen that drought has “just as big of an impact on turkeys as a severe winter does,” particularly for poult survival. 

“Drought’s probably the worst environmental factor that you really have to concern yourself with upland birds, including turkeys,” he said. 

This does mean that turkeys, like many animal populations, are subject to natural ups and downs in numbers. 

Gorman compared these population fluctuations to a common refrain in Colorado: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes, and it’ll change — turkey populations kind of live like that.”